Foreign portfolio investors have returned to the Nigerian Exchange Limited in record numbers, with transactions hitting N2.03tn as of October 2025, a level that surpasses all annual foreign participation recorded since 2007.

This was disclosed in the latest Domestic & Foreign Portfolio Investment Report of the Nigerian Exchange Limited.
According to the report, foreign participation in the market this year is already higher than any full-year figure since 2007.

This points to improved investor appetite for the Nigerian market, boosted by better dollar supply and easier fund repatriation.

The closest comparable figure to 2025’s was in 2014, when foreign investors transacted around N1.54tn, surpassing domestic investors. In 2018, they handled about N1.22tn worth of transactions, again ahead of their domestic counterparts. After 2018, foreign transactions dropped below N1tn annually as domestic investors dominated following foreign investor exits.

The report indicated that FPIs strengthened their market share to 21.18 per cent, up from 16.65 per cent, while domestic investors’ share moderated to 78.82 per cent from 83.35 per cent.

Yearly, the transactions undertaken by foreign investors increased significantly by 172.37 per cent as of the end of October 2025, reaching N2.03tn compared to N744.34bn in the same period of 2024.

The report also highlighted that foreign inflow (N1.12tn) as of October 2025 surpassed foreign outflow, which stood at N909.56bn.

In the market generally, investor participation on the NGX rose to N9.57tn, which is about 114.06 per cent higher than the N4.47tn posted in the corresponding period of 2024.

A month-on-month review indicated that as of 31 October 2025, total transactions at the nation’s bourse decreased significantly by 36.31 per cent from N1.62tn in September 2025 to N1.03tn in October 2025.

The NGX said that the “sharp decline was primarily due to the absence of the block trades that had substantially boosted domestic transaction figures in September 2025.

The performance of the current month, when compared to the performance in October 2024 (N502.73bn), revealed that total transactions increased considerably by 105.39 per cent. In October 2025, the total value of transactions executed by domestic investors outperformed transactions executed by foreign investors by circa 64 per cent.

Between September and October, institutional investors outpaced retail investors by 22 per cent. Month-on-month, retail transactions increased by 19.08 per cent from N278.57bn in September 2025 to N331.71bn in October 2025. Despite the 46.17 per cent decrease from N955.26bn in September 2025 to N514.25bn in October 2025 in the institutional composition of the domestic market, institutional investors still stayed in control of the market.

Meanwhile, the NGX has resumed bearish trading this week, leading to about N1.79tn being wiped off the market capitalisation of the local bourse since trading opened. The dip has been driven by sell-offs in top stocks and the profit-taking activities of mostly institutional investors.